In March 2008, Britain's Christian Research organization disseminated a study that made the following projection: By 2020, the number of Catholics attending Sunday mass will have been surpassed by ...
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In March 2008, Britain's Christian Research organization disseminated a study that made the following projection: By 2020, the number of Catholics attending Sunday mass will have been surpassed by the number of Muslims worshiping in mosques in Britain. This study came out in the middle of growing tensions about the place of Muslims in British society and fanned some alarmist flames about the changing face of Britain. This backlash was not far off the heels of a lecture given at the Royal Courts of Justice, in February 2008, by Dr. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which also ruffled British feathers. He suggested that British Muslims be allowed to live freely under the shari'a law, signaling that there is something more than just the official British legal system alone. This speech not only highlights the significance of legal pluralism; it also raises the question of what it means to be a Muslim by conviction and free choice. This chapter discusses how some Muslim intellectuals have dealt with the question of the religious neutrality of the liberal state. It examines the question raised by official recognition of a shari'a council in Britain: To what extent should religious identity and practice be accommodated under a liberal legal framework? The chapter explores the related questions of power and representation at this significant site, where the diaspora intersects with the national spaces that it continually negotiates.Less

Britain’s Fear of Shari’acracy

Kathleen M. Moore

Published in print: 2010-02-22

In March 2008, Britain's Christian Research organization disseminated a study that made the following projection: By 2020, the number of Catholics attending Sunday mass will have been surpassed by the number of Muslims worshiping in mosques in Britain. This study came out in the middle of growing tensions about the place of Muslims in British society and fanned some alarmist flames about the changing face of Britain. This backlash was not far off the heels of a lecture given at the Royal Courts of Justice, in February 2008, by Dr. Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which also ruffled British feathers. He suggested that British Muslims be allowed to live freely under the shari'a law, signaling that there is something more than just the official British legal system alone. This speech not only highlights the significance of legal pluralism; it also raises the question of what it means to be a Muslim by conviction and free choice. This chapter discusses how some Muslim intellectuals have dealt with the question of the religious neutrality of the liberal state. It examines the question raised by official recognition of a shari'a council in Britain: To what extent should religious identity and practice be accommodated under a liberal legal framework? The chapter explores the related questions of power and representation at this significant site, where the diaspora intersects with the national spaces that it continually negotiates.

The central question of the Arab Spring—what democracies should look like in the deeply religious countries of the Middle East—has developed into a vigorous debate over these nations' secular ...
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The central question of the Arab Spring—what democracies should look like in the deeply religious countries of the Middle East—has developed into a vigorous debate over these nations' secular identities. But what, exactly, is secularism? What has the West's long familiarity with it inevitably obscured? This book tackles these questions. Focusing on the fatwa councils and family law courts of Egypt just prior to the revolution, it delves deeply into the meaning of secularism itself and the ambiguities that lie at its heart. Drawing on a precedent-setting case arising from the family law courts—the last courts in Egypt to use Shari'a law—the book shows that secularism is an historical phenomenon that works through a series of paradoxes that it creates. Digging beneath the perceived differences between the West and Middle East, it highlights secularism's dependence on the law and the problems that arise from it: the necessary involvement of state sovereign power in managing the private spiritual lives of citizens and the irreducible set of legal ambiguities such a relationship creates.Less

Questioning Secularism : Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt

Hussein Ali Agrama

Published in print: 2012-11-02

The central question of the Arab Spring—what democracies should look like in the deeply religious countries of the Middle East—has developed into a vigorous debate over these nations' secular identities. But what, exactly, is secularism? What has the West's long familiarity with it inevitably obscured? This book tackles these questions. Focusing on the fatwa councils and family law courts of Egypt just prior to the revolution, it delves deeply into the meaning of secularism itself and the ambiguities that lie at its heart. Drawing on a precedent-setting case arising from the family law courts—the last courts in Egypt to use Shari'a law—the book shows that secularism is an historical phenomenon that works through a series of paradoxes that it creates. Digging beneath the perceived differences between the West and Middle East, it highlights secularism's dependence on the law and the problems that arise from it: the necessary involvement of state sovereign power in managing the private spiritual lives of citizens and the irreducible set of legal ambiguities such a relationship creates.

In sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential ...
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In sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential background and context for understanding contemporary politics in the Islamic world and beyond. Selected from the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, and focusing on the origins, development, and contemporary importance of Islamic political ideas and related subjects, each chapter offers a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to its topic. Written by leading specialists and incorporating the latest scholarship, the alphabetically arranged chapters cover the topics of authority, the caliphate, fundamentalism, government, jihad, knowledge, minorities, modernity, Muhammad, pluralism and tolerance, the Qur'an, revival and reform, shari'a (sacred law), traditional political thought, ‘ulama’ (religious scholars), and women. Read separately or together, these chapters provide an indispensable resource for students, journalists, policymakers, and anyone else seeking an informed perspective on the complex intersection of Islam and politics.Less

Islamic Political Thought : An Introduction

Published in print: 2015-03-29

In sixteen concise chapters on key topics, this book provides a rich, authoritative, and up-to-date introduction to Islamic political thought from the birth of Islam to today, presenting essential background and context for understanding contemporary politics in the Islamic world and beyond. Selected from the acclaimed Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, and focusing on the origins, development, and contemporary importance of Islamic political ideas and related subjects, each chapter offers a sophisticated yet accessible introduction to its topic. Written by leading specialists and incorporating the latest scholarship, the alphabetically arranged chapters cover the topics of authority, the caliphate, fundamentalism, government, jihad, knowledge, minorities, modernity, Muhammad, pluralism and tolerance, the Qur'an, revival and reform, shari'a (sacred law), traditional political thought, ‘ulama’ (religious scholars), and women. Read separately or together, these chapters provide an indispensable resource for students, journalists, policymakers, and anyone else seeking an informed perspective on the complex intersection of Islam and politics.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Egyptian women gained the unique right to divorce their husbands unilaterally through a procedure called khul'. This has been a controversial ...
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At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Egyptian women gained the unique right to divorce their husbands unilaterally through a procedure called khul'. This has been a controversial application; notwithstanding attempts to present the law as being grounded in Islamic law, opponents claim that khul' is a privileged women's law, and a western conspiracy aimed at destroying Egyptian family life and, by extension, Egyptian society. In Khul' Divorce in Egypt, Nadia Sonneveld explores the nature of the public debates—including the portrayal of khul' in films and cartoons—while an examination of the application of khul' in the courts and everyday life relates and compares this debate to the actual implementation of the procedure. She makes it clear that the points of controversy bear little resemblance to the lives of the lower-middle-class women who apply for khul'; they merely reflect profound changes in the institutions of marriage and family.Less

Khul' Divorce in Egypt : Public Debates, Judicial Practices, and Everyday Life

Nadia Sonneveld

Published in print: 2012-07-08

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Egyptian women gained the unique right to divorce their husbands unilaterally through a procedure called khul'. This has been a controversial application; notwithstanding attempts to present the law as being grounded in Islamic law, opponents claim that khul' is a privileged women's law, and a western conspiracy aimed at destroying Egyptian family life and, by extension, Egyptian society. In Khul' Divorce in Egypt, Nadia Sonneveld explores the nature of the public debates—including the portrayal of khul' in films and cartoons—while an examination of the application of khul' in the courts and everyday life relates and compares this debate to the actual implementation of the procedure. She makes it clear that the points of controversy bear little resemblance to the lives of the lower-middle-class women who apply for khul'; they merely reflect profound changes in the institutions of marriage and family.

Provides an examination of the written sources in the national media, including newspapers and magazines. In addition to an analysis of the debate on khul', it presents an examination of reforms ...
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Provides an examination of the written sources in the national media, including newspapers and magazines. In addition to an analysis of the debate on khul', it presents an examination of reforms related to personal status adopted in the wake of the khul' law, in the period between 2000 and 2002.Less

The ‘Khul̒ Law’ Criticized: The First Pen

Nadia Sonneveld

Published in print: 2012-07-08

Provides an examination of the written sources in the national media, including newspapers and magazines. In addition to an analysis of the debate on khul', it presents an examination of reforms related to personal status adopted in the wake of the khul' law, in the period between 2000 and 2002.

The current and future conflict with jihadi groups in the global war on terrorism puts great pressure on much of the inherited just war tradition. The actors are not uniformed soldiers. They do not ...
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The current and future conflict with jihadi groups in the global war on terrorism puts great pressure on much of the inherited just war tradition. The actors are not uniformed soldiers. They do not act in the name of and on behalf of a state. Their way of construing the aims of their conflict do not conform to the assumptions of the Westphalian international system at all—most dramatically in their quest for a global caliphate governed by shari‘a law. This chapter assesses the arguments presented for a radical rejection of existing just war standards in light of the threat posed by the global jihadi movement, as well as offers a constructive proposal for how and why existing just war standards may need augmentation or modification if the West is to respond to this threat in a way that is both effective and consonant with its fundamental values.Less

How Has the Global Salafi Terrorist Movement Affected Western Just War Thinking?

Martin L. Cook

Published in print: 2012-08-01

The current and future conflict with jihadi groups in the global war on terrorism puts great pressure on much of the inherited just war tradition. The actors are not uniformed soldiers. They do not act in the name of and on behalf of a state. Their way of construing the aims of their conflict do not conform to the assumptions of the Westphalian international system at all—most dramatically in their quest for a global caliphate governed by shari‘a law. This chapter assesses the arguments presented for a radical rejection of existing just war standards in light of the threat posed by the global jihadi movement, as well as offers a constructive proposal for how and why existing just war standards may need augmentation or modification if the West is to respond to this threat in a way that is both effective and consonant with its fundamental values.

In the empire of Muhammad Ali in the Near East, Upper Egypt was the “first colony.” Before invading other territories, the Pasha first fought fierce wars to incorporate the south into a unified ...
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In the empire of Muhammad Ali in the Near East, Upper Egypt was the “first colony.” Before invading other territories, the Pasha first fought fierce wars to incorporate the south into a unified Egyptian state. As in other world cases of “internal colonialism,” the pasha’s empire depended on the economic exploitation of the internal colony to support further external expansion. This process involved the implantation of imperial settlers and the creation of vast plantations in the south of Egypt. As his extended empire began to collapse, the pasha’s hegemony over the south also waned. Qina province constantly simmered with both separatist revolts and the resistance of daily life, which was championed by peasants, women, laborers, slaves, and ever-ruthless bandits.Less

The Pasha’s Settlers, Bulls, and Bandits : 1805–1848

Zeinab Abul-Magd

Published in print: 2013-07-12

In the empire of Muhammad Ali in the Near East, Upper Egypt was the “first colony.” Before invading other territories, the Pasha first fought fierce wars to incorporate the south into a unified Egyptian state. As in other world cases of “internal colonialism,” the pasha’s empire depended on the economic exploitation of the internal colony to support further external expansion. This process involved the implantation of imperial settlers and the creation of vast plantations in the south of Egypt. As his extended empire began to collapse, the pasha’s hegemony over the south also waned. Qina province constantly simmered with both separatist revolts and the resistance of daily life, which was championed by peasants, women, laborers, slaves, and ever-ruthless bandits.

This chapter returns us to the question of how colonial governments made policy choices about the treatment of subject populations, particularly in circumstances where imperial security was at stake. ...
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This chapter returns us to the question of how colonial governments made policy choices about the treatment of subject populations, particularly in circumstances where imperial security was at stake. The role of what might be termed “lessons from the past” in determining these choices is central to the answer. So, too, is the part played by intelligence providers, whose past experiences provided frames of reference for policy makers, shaping the ways in which these lessons were understood by politicians and senior colonial officials. The chapter thus connects past precedents and the dilemmas of colonial security in the interwar period. Colonial authorities recognized the organizational power of Islam and the centrality of Shari'a law to Muslims' lives. However, colonialism imposed requirements for political loyalty, as well as legal systems based on the ownership and sale of private property, that were at variance with customary practices and Islam's codes of behavior.Less

Past Precedents and Colonial Rule

Thomas Martin

Published in print: 2007-09-10

This chapter returns us to the question of how colonial governments made policy choices about the treatment of subject populations, particularly in circumstances where imperial security was at stake. The role of what might be termed “lessons from the past” in determining these choices is central to the answer. So, too, is the part played by intelligence providers, whose past experiences provided frames of reference for policy makers, shaping the ways in which these lessons were understood by politicians and senior colonial officials. The chapter thus connects past precedents and the dilemmas of colonial security in the interwar period. Colonial authorities recognized the organizational power of Islam and the centrality of Shari'a law to Muslims' lives. However, colonialism imposed requirements for political loyalty, as well as legal systems based on the ownership and sale of private property, that were at variance with customary practices and Islam's codes of behavior.

This chapter examines the power struggle that emerged between British customary law and Shari'a law over matters pertaining to family. The conflict has its roots in the two different legal systems ...
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This chapter examines the power struggle that emerged between British customary law and Shari'a law over matters pertaining to family. The conflict has its roots in the two different legal systems that governed Iraq during the British occupation—the rural population was subject to customary law through the TCCDR, while the urban population was subject to law under the civil and criminal courts that followed Shari'a law which were charged with handling matters of personal status among Iraqi Muslims. Islam in British rhetoric however was often synonymous with backwardness, and Islamic law, especially as regards women, was inconsistent with Western concepts. The chapter discusses how this power struggle further constructed women as “subordinate” and dependent, which left them unprotected from harsh treatment by kin and husbands and from uncompromising rulings by religious clerics.Less

Family Law as a Site of Struggle and Subordination

Noga Efrati

Published in print: 2012-01-24

This chapter examines the power struggle that emerged between British customary law and Shari'a law over matters pertaining to family. The conflict has its roots in the two different legal systems that governed Iraq during the British occupation—the rural population was subject to customary law through the TCCDR, while the urban population was subject to law under the civil and criminal courts that followed Shari'a law which were charged with handling matters of personal status among Iraqi Muslims. Islam in British rhetoric however was often synonymous with backwardness, and Islamic law, especially as regards women, was inconsistent with Western concepts. The chapter discusses how this power struggle further constructed women as “subordinate” and dependent, which left them unprotected from harsh treatment by kin and husbands and from uncompromising rulings by religious clerics.

How to accommodate diverse religious practices and laws within a secular framework is one of the most pressing and controversial problems facing contemporary European public order. This book argues ...
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How to accommodate diverse religious practices and laws within a secular framework is one of the most pressing and controversial problems facing contemporary European public order. This book argues that traditional models of secularism, focusing on the relationship of state and church, are out-dated and that only by embracing a new picture of what secularism means can Europe move forward in the public reconciliation of its religious diversity. The book develops a new model of secularism suitable for Europe as a whole. The new model of secularism is concerned with the way in which modern secular states deal with the presence of diversity in the society. This new conception of secularism is more suited to the European Union whose overall aim is to promote a stable, peaceful and unified economic and political space starting from a wide range of different national experiences and perspectives. The new conception of secularism is also more suited for the Council of Europe at large, and in particular the European Court of Human Rights which faces growing demands for the recognition of freedom of religion in European states. The new model does not defend secularism as an ideological position, but aims to present secularism as our common constitutional tradition as well as the basis for our common constitutional future.Less

A Secular Europe : Law and Religion in the European Constitutional Landscape

Lorenzo Zucca

Published in print: 2012-10-11

How to accommodate diverse religious practices and laws within a secular framework is one of the most pressing and controversial problems facing contemporary European public order. This book argues that traditional models of secularism, focusing on the relationship of state and church, are out-dated and that only by embracing a new picture of what secularism means can Europe move forward in the public reconciliation of its religious diversity. The book develops a new model of secularism suitable for Europe as a whole. The new model of secularism is concerned with the way in which modern secular states deal with the presence of diversity in the society. This new conception of secularism is more suited to the European Union whose overall aim is to promote a stable, peaceful and unified economic and political space starting from a wide range of different national experiences and perspectives. The new conception of secularism is also more suited for the Council of Europe at large, and in particular the European Court of Human Rights which faces growing demands for the recognition of freedom of religion in European states. The new model does not defend secularism as an ideological position, but aims to present secularism as our common constitutional tradition as well as the basis for our common constitutional future.

This chapter examines the secular and the religious in Turkey as a self-reaffirming “binary pair.” It describes Turkish laicism as a process, not of separation, but of the containment and ...
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This chapter examines the secular and the religious in Turkey as a self-reaffirming “binary pair.” It describes Turkish laicism as a process, not of separation, but of the containment and subordination of religion by the state through law and the efforts of the Directorate for Religious Affairs. The DRA does not claim authority only as a state agency: it also projects its own understanding of shari'a law, Greek Orthodox devotional practices, and other religious matters.Less

The Religio-Secular Continuum : Reflections on the Religious Dimensions of Turkish Secularism

Markus Dressler

Published in print: 2011-08-29

This chapter examines the secular and the religious in Turkey as a self-reaffirming “binary pair.” It describes Turkish laicism as a process, not of separation, but of the containment and subordination of religion by the state through law and the efforts of the Directorate for Religious Affairs. The DRA does not claim authority only as a state agency: it also projects its own understanding of shari'a law, Greek Orthodox devotional practices, and other religious matters.

This chapter examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the People’s Court and its exceptional powers. The RCC saw the tribunal as a mean to promote much broader objectives than the ...
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This chapter examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the People’s Court and its exceptional powers. The RCC saw the tribunal as a mean to promote much broader objectives than the prosecution of the accused in the assassination attempt on Prime Minister ‛Abd al-Nasir. The court wanted to strike a fatal blow against the MB. In fact, the transcripts show that the court focused very little on the details of the assassination attempt. The questioning of the accused and the witnesses addressed broader issues, including the aims of the MB and their national and civic commitments. The judges and the prosecution presented the MB as cynically exploiting innocent civilians to promote a radical agenda that threatened to plunge Egypt into a civil war (fitna). Yet, the questioning of the accused and the witnesses also allowed descriptions and counter-arguments to be voiced that the regime actually intended to suppress.Less

The Advent of the People’s Court

Yoram Meital

Published in print: 2016-12-01

This chapter examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the People’s Court and its exceptional powers. The RCC saw the tribunal as a mean to promote much broader objectives than the prosecution of the accused in the assassination attempt on Prime Minister ‛Abd al-Nasir. The court wanted to strike a fatal blow against the MB. In fact, the transcripts show that the court focused very little on the details of the assassination attempt. The questioning of the accused and the witnesses addressed broader issues, including the aims of the MB and their national and civic commitments. The judges and the prosecution presented the MB as cynically exploiting innocent civilians to promote a radical agenda that threatened to plunge Egypt into a civil war (fitna). Yet, the questioning of the accused and the witnesses also allowed descriptions and counter-arguments to be voiced that the regime actually intended to suppress.